It had been a long, crappy day at the office, and I was headed home to a long night of leaning on the youngest boy to make up more missing homework assignments. And then I realized I had nothing thawed for dinner. Thank God for the roasted chickens at the grocery store – but it was about five windy degrees outside, so dashing in to get it was not going to be a joy. What a relentless day it was! And then there it stood.

It’s amazing how finding a curbside classic can instantly shuck off my day’s stress. And making my day even better, as I walked around this Grand Prix snapping photos, the owner stuck his head out of the barber shop across the way and invited me in to talk about his car.

“I bought it off this lady who bought it new but wasn’t driving anymore,” he said. “It’s got only 80 thousand miles on it.” A broughamified coupe was certainly the kind of car a middle-aged woman would have bought in 1979. By the looks of the car, she didn’t have many places to go in the ensuing 35 years. Even the pillowy interior looks barely ruffled.

I know these were a mere shadow of Grand Prixes gone by, especially the stunning 1963 and 1964 models. We’ve gone so far as to call this Grand Prix a GM Deadly Sin; read all about it here. But let’s ignore the storied Grand Prix history and weigh this car on its own merits for a moment. Pretend this car was called something other than Grand Prix. As a midsized two-door on the cusp of the 1980s, it wasn’t bad.

One of these was in the motor pool of a state agency where I worked in 1988. (Department of Mental Health. All of my friends, and even some of my family, joked that it was a remarkably accurate placement.) They had a motley crew of vehicles, including a couple of Ford vans, a bare-bones compact (an Escort, I think), and a rust-riddled white Caprice wagon. It wasn’t hard for the GP to stand out among this competition. I checked it out every time it was available, and I pretty quickly came to like driving it. It was comfortable and quiet. The power steering was typically finger light, but was precise enough. It had enough go power for the city traffic I drove in. Its ride felt a little floaty but never unsure. The one thing I couldn’t get over was the feminine styling. See above, re: middle-aged women buyers.

But the strapping fellow who owned this one seemed more than secure enough in his masculinity to drive it. (He was also brash enough to park it in a handicapped space.) Actually, he was selling it. When I explained to him about Curbside Classic, he became pretty excited to find that I would be sharing his Grand Prix all over the Internet. He even dashed out to the car with me so he could prop up the For Sale sign in the front window so I could photograph it. Unfortunately, my iPhone doesn’t like the cold and it chose that moment to shut down. Then it took me more than two months to get around to writing about this GP. So much for helping a guy out.

The Grand Prix has been a frequent subject around here. Read about it: 1964, 1968, 1969, 1976, 1991.

Rented one of these when our son was three and we took him on his first trip to Disney World. Same color, even. It worked for what we needed it for. He insisted it was an Oldsmobile. I told him no, it was a Pontiac. He walked over and pointed to what a three-year-old could see much more easily than I could, the right rear wheel. The little tyke was a three-year-old car nut and he was right. The rental company had put Oldsmobile wheel covers on our rental.

Sounds like he was future CC material. Does he know about this website? I was visiting my old neighborhood last week, walking in the playground area at my old elementary school. It looked the same, but a little different. Then I squatted down to about 4 ft eye level. Ah, now it looked the same! I hope the new owner keeps that well preserved Pontiac/Olds out of the snow. A friend had the Olds version, blue with white top. He let me drive it with him and his brother bacl from Vegas to LA in the early 80’s. As I rolled down the window, the handle broke in my hand. After a few miles the car began to vibrate. The top was lifting up and flapping like crazy. We pressed on. soon the car was shuddering. I wanted to stop, he said it’s just the top. I pulled over anyway, the RR tire was coming apart and the steel belts were tearing apart the wheel well. His wife (her car) hated me for a long time!

Must have been a thing with the window cranks on these A-bodies–brittle metal? The driver’s side crank on my Malibu snapped in half, then the replacement also broke off. We left it broken the second time and just rotated the “stump” if we needed to roll the window down…

Beautiful GP with the two-tone green. I’ve always thought the front-end design was a little fussy with the indicators between the lamps (didn’t care for that treatment on the B-body Pontiacs either) and that the pronounced kick-up of the rear fenders made the “opera” window look oddly small, both problems which were remedied with the ’80 refresh. But it does work as a very representative piece of late 70’s Broughaminess. Deserves better than snow driving!

In the mid nineties my uncles Nissan pickup was t-boned in a Vancouver intersection. While his insurance covered the repair and the rental he decided to go to the local rent a wreck. What he was assigned was a perfect 84 (I believe) grand Prix in exactly the same color combo as the featured car above. I Had a hard time believing that even a rental agency like rent a wreck would have a car this old and in such good shape. I even enquired with the agency if they would sell the car but the answer was a firm no.

One of these Grand Prix is a regular at the commuter rail parking lot that I sometimes use. “Mine” is white and much plainer and also in surprisingly good condition, with a “78 GP” license plate that indicates that its owner views it as more than just a cheap beater.

I also cannot agree with the dislike for these cars, because they were quite good in many ways. All were good transportation: quiet, comfortable and reliable. I was a regular passenger in a Cutlass coupe owned by a family friend and always liked riding in either the front or the back, and I knew many people who owned them for many years despite neglect and abuse. Buick made them into a tire-smoking muscle car with the Grand National. This generation of Grand Prix and Monte Carlo was bland and sawed-off compared to their predecessors, but there was nothing wrong with them as transportation and they sold well. They were everywhere until the late 1990s, when they apparently almost all went to the crusher after two decades of rust and neglect.

I, too, have a soft spot for this generation of A bodies. I learned to drive on a ’79 Cutlass Salon with the (gutless) 260 cid Olds engine, the (fragile) TH200 tranny and the not-rolling-down rear windows.. Despite all that, I have fond memories of it. The downsized A bodies were honest, affordable-to-own cars that, given the technology of the time and the regulatory environment, had pretty good packaging, reasonable comfort for up to 6 passengers, a comfortable ride, pretty good handling, and a little bit of style.

Plus, with the reskin of the A special/G body coupes that came later, they added enough length to be able to smooth out the stubbiness and give the cars a bit more character.

I never saw these as feminine. Perhaps it is because I was born in 1977 and the Grand Prix and Monte Carlos of the glory years were only in car shows by the time I was aware. Maybe it is because my father owned a 1978 Monte Carlo with the 305 and it one of my earliest automotive memories.

Well JG, you have purloined another of my CC finds. However, I bear you no ill will on this one, as my photos seem to be held hostage inside of a corrupted memory card in the JPC DroidCam. Maybe there is something otherworldly about this car that causes mayhem across all major cellphone platforms. Could be the colors.

I found this car last fall in a mechanic’s parking lot, and it was wedged in with several other cars and my shots weren’t very good.

I laughed at the middle-aged-woman angle, as we had a next door neighbor who owned one of these new and fit that demographic to a T. In her younger years, she drove a succession of 3 GTOs (2 of them with 4 speeds) and always considered this one quite a come-down from some of her earlier rides, including a 76 GP.

During my brief stint at GMAC, I was given a ’78 SJ in this color scheme. It had the 301, buckets, console, guages, handling pkg. with rear stabilizer and the unusual wheels with trim rings. My first wife thought so much of it that she requested – and got – the exact vehicle. My memory is that is was very good for the time, but my personal memories are much darker. I do recall it invoiced for $7602, a pretty good piece of change in 1978. Needless to say, seeing this was something I could have gone all year without.

I should have specified that the reason my first wife got that car was that it was part of the divorce settlement, hence my less than happy memories. Plus, it was the most expensive GP she could find. I guess the devil really is in the details.

While certainly not as sexy as any of the earlier Grand Prix’s, I dont think its as much of a deadly sin as the W-body that replaced it in 1988. As a teenager in the 80s, a GP, along with all of its G-body stablemates, was a must-have car and I had one as my first car, although mine was an immaculate low-mileage ’73 Colonnade.

You know, until I read this article, I never realized the ‘feminine styling’ part but I see it now, haha. A quick shot of candy apple green, Cragars and a warmed up Poncho 400 would take care of that.

That is a nice car though and certainly deserving of a new owner that wont drive it in the snow or park it illegally.

I’m a visual person & follow/buy/own/etc cars I find viually appealing. Some are masculine but in my case, more happen to be feminine. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been so “straight” and have always enjoyed looking at and being around women in general. If something reminds me of a woman…there’s a good chance I will gravitate towards it.

In other words, I cannot differentiate between a man that prefers feminine cars and a man that prefers the company of women. The mindset that men should drive “man cars” seems a little weak to me. A man is who he is. If he likes “tough” cars because he truly likes those types of cars, that’s great.
If he needs a car to extend his masculinity, something is wrong. I hope this didn’t piss anyone off.

+1 Though straight, I seem to gravitate to non-masculine, or even feminine cars. I want a Mini Cooper coupe, and I even once owned an ’84 Nissan Pulsar NX with the bordello red interior. I liked the Fiero and New Beetle. The beautiful ’82 Z28 caused me to stray, and then came a series of geezer cars……but now I want that Mini.

+1 from me too, if it means anything. The whole “manly men drive manly vehicles” thing isn’t terrible, but it has led to the hoods of pickup trucks getting larger and more squared-off with each passing redesign. The 1997-03 F-150, one of the most attractive pickup trucks ever made, IMHO, couldn’t get made today. Yes, a ’98 F-250-light-duty was my first drive…what of it?

I agree on the 97-03 Ford trucks; they’d never be approved today. I think these were the last trucks that attempted to advance the state of the art in pickup design. I thought these were very appealing, but there were those that expressed their disgust by saying they looked like Toyotas. To me, every truck since seems to be designed primarily to project a rugged, masculine image.

I am comfortable enough in my sexuality/masculinity that I could not care any less if an item I am buying appears masculine or feminine. Neither is a consideration or can be based on my desire for an item. If someone is basing such a purchase on those factors they would be best served to spend their money on therapy. Spending money for other’s approval has never been an interest of mine.
I have a friend who has driven Corvette’s for years but finds them very uncomfortable. He says he drives them for the image. With that kind of outlook I had rather be dead.

I happen to agree with you, Junqueboi. I have always been fond of classical styling elements that have later been referred to as “feminine”, such as the luxury-oriented trim versions of cars, such as the early ’80’s Chevy Camaro Berlinetta, as opposed to the “masculine” Z/28. So what? If we look in the past history of fashion, long time ago, men of Royalty and Upper Class wore wigs, makeup, long coats that resembled skirts, and high-heeled shoes. That was considered “Manly” then. When Lee Iacocca created the Mustang II, the lovely Ghia model came with a nicely tailored half-vinyl Landau roof, opera windows, and hood ornament. Below is a photo of the 1975 Mustang II Ghia Silver Edition.

I think what Pontiac was aiming for here was a refined interpretation of the “sheer look.” Where the Monte Carlo and Cutlass doubled down on side sculpting, the GP and Regal look like they were trying for smooth elegance.

The GP with the two-tone paint job also comes off as less stubby than the others, maybe due to the lack of sculptus interruptus.

I remember this car. My uncle had the 1978 Grand Prix. I do not know if it was LJ or SJ. It was loaded. It had bucket seats, full gauges, t-tops and more. He had that car for years. It was a two tone gray. My other uncle had a 1977 Grand Prix. It was loaded too. It was white with snowflake wheels and bucket seats and more. I prefer the updated 1981-1987 model. It to me took the frumpiness out of the styling. I know GM called it the aero look. I know that the 1980-1981 updates to GM cars did fix a lot of styling issues and made the cars look more elegant and well balanced at least to me.
I know Brougham was later upgraded. I liked the improvements on the 80’s Grand Prix Brougham.

Full gauges and the console in ’78 were exclusive SJ. I think. That color combo was very nice in those days. The best I saw was dark blue SJ w/o the padded top. Very clean look. The ’78 Grand Am was a very nice car, too, that didn’t sell for some reason. The coupe was a sleek looker, but for the same money most opted for the Prix.

I had a ’78 Grand Am, bought new. Got the same dash as the GP SJ, which was great. Full gages (yes, that’s how Pontiac spelled it), huge analog clock and nice looking wood trim. Sport steering wheel too. Black with the 301 4 bbl, which moved this lighter car pretty well. No vinyl top. Pretty reliable for 8 years and 110,000 miles, then everything tanked at once.

Originally interested in the GP, but it didn’t quite give off the sporty vibe it had in previous years. To me the Grand Am just looked better. Price was within a hundred bucks or so of the GP SJ.

From 1977 through 1981, Pontiac offered Five Different Body Variations of their Mid Size Cars (stating that they were Compacts were very much an understatement) which for all intents and purposes were all nearly identical in size and weight. I have selected this era for Pontiacs because there were more Ventura/Phoenix sized cars as the result of the Downsizing of Intermediate Size Vehicles. A prospective Pontiac customer had a wide variety of choices whether they want a Ventura/Phoenix based Firebird or Le Mans based Grand Prix or somewhere in between. The 1978-80 Grand Prix had a noticeable design difference with the 1981-87 BTW.

Of the five, the Ventura later the Phoenix have much more design similarities with the Le Mans later the Bonneville. The 2 Door Coupe versions for the Ventura/Phoenix and the Le Mans can be confused with one another whether both had padded landau roofs or not.

These were all over my high school parking lot (including the faculty section) in the mid ’80s. I seem to remember that these and the Regals were far more susceptible to the saggy door problem that all GM coupes developed to one degree or another as they aged.

This also brings up memories of car shopping in with my parents (at age 9) in 1978 when they were in the market to replace their ’72 LTD. (that’s right Paul, we had one!). After dabbling in the LTD II, Cougar and T-Bird and deciding they were all too big, they decided to go for a new GM A-body. They shopped them all before deciding on the Malibu coupe that I would end up with years later.

I particularly remember one Sunday afternoon (when the dealers were closed and thus the “vultures” weren’t swarming) at Gay Pontiac in Dickinson, TX (still around today selling Buicks) which at the time was one of the largest Pontiac stores anywhere. What struck me at the ripe old age of nine were the Grand Prixs so loaded with options that they required TWO Monroney stickers to list them all!

I remember Gay Pontiac /GMC. Yeah, they are selling Buicks and GMC ‘s and KIA’s now. I used to always like watching the Bonnevilles and Parisiennes on the lot back in the day. They sold a lot of Pontiacs over the years. They changed with the times and are still doing business. It is Gay Family Auto now.

I don’t see anything particularly feminine about this car, unless simply the absence of blatantly macho styling elements, as found on current trucks and SUVs, make it feminine by default. If that’s the case, it is strictly a modern, revisionist view. Back in the 1980s, no guy was ever perceived to compromise his masculinity by driving a GP.

Nor is it a “deadly sin”. GM had just trimmed lots of ugly fat from the pre-1978 models and brought out a new line of cars that were trim, modern, attractive and generally well-built. These GPs, Regals, Cutlassess and Montes were the right product for the time and were very popular. The only thing sinful is how many of those cars ended up being butchered into trailer trash rat rods 20 years down the road. Even THAT is a testament to these cars inherent worth: nobody is rodding 1990s GM coupes. A clean original like the featured car is a welcome rarity, not any kind of sin.

I had spent some time in the passenger seat of a ’78 SJ, owned by my best friend in high school in the mid-1980s. In ’86, I bought a ’79 Monte Carlo for my first car. I still have a soft spot for this generation of GM coupes. I would take this car in a heartbeat, in that exact color, just please delete the vinyl roof and add the snowflake wheels.

Well put. I think the car “flows” so much better without the vinyl top also. Snowflakes, while a PITA to keep clean, would look very good on this car. If I had the opportunity to order it new, I’d probably stick with the base wheelcovers…which are easy to keep clean & happen to look pretty cool too….but that’s just me.

I always saw these cars as a symptom of the dreaded disco era. Remember, even pickup trucks by Dodge and GMC were “broughamed out” In order to complement the style of the day. Remember that God warlock and little red wagon? Or the GMC Beau. James”

what is entertaining is to remember my reaction when this generation of GP first came out…that they were hilariously shrunken, like the Beetles with the Rolls grilles…now when you see one it looks long and low..

This car is a deadly sin and one of the worst downsizings. This was so plain on the outside. Should have just called it Prix. It wasent grand any more. The body was so plain. Thr Monte Carlo looked better as did the cutlass supreme. Also it was inferior in other ways. It came with an underpowered v6 or you could get a 301 Pontiac v8 which was a weak design and not very powerful. The cheap models had blacked out plastic over missing guages and power nothing. Compared to the 77 it was a piece of cut down junk. Amassing they sold a one when you could get a beautiful t bird or cougar as an alternative. At least these looked beautiful. Had a good v8 and were big and comfortable. The grand Prix looked no classier than an entry level Malibu coupe. A 2 door Bonneville with a 400 would be far closer to what a grand Prix should have been that this box.

I have a soft spot for this. Distant neighbors had this car. I spent some time in my Dad’s company Olds 88 that had the light half of this two tone. The interior is about the right shade. It has its faults but it is far from a GM DS.

8o to 81 v6 again joined by a 265 v8 with power of a v6 also you could get a self destructing diesel. Advantage Miranda or cordoba

83 no v8. What a lame car

88. Hideous redesign that made the 78 look good in comparison.v6 engines with bad intake gaskets. 4 doors. Not sporty. Then over the years it becomes encased in plastic. Again advantage t bird or cougar

The 1977 301 was just the base engine. You could also get a 350 or 400 which were much more stout than what Ford was offering in there equally weak 351 motors at the time!

The 1977 never came with a V6. The downsized 1978-87 came with the Buick 231 V6 as std. It was not any weaker than a 129 HP 4000 LB 1979 T-Bird with the 302!

80-81 which were two different body styles that could be had with 231 V6, 265 V8, diesel and two different 301 V8’s for the 80 model year. The 265 was quicker and smoother running than the 231 V6 and got the same MPG so was hardly bad. The Mirada/Cordoba had no advantages whatsoever to these cars and there sales and lackluster write ups from CR/Consumer Guide auto series and the auto magazines at the time proves that. So did tepid sales and a disastrously under powered and ill running 85 HP slant six as the primary engine choice for these 3300 LB cars.

The 1983 Grand Prix had the option of a 305 4BL V8 with 150 HP which was 20 more than the Mirada/Cordoba 318 or the top 302 equipped T-Bird.

The 1988 W-body FWD redesign was indeed a let down and bland. The 2.8 wasn’t the engine that suffered intake gasket issues that was the 1994-2003 3100 V6. The 4 door body style was in response to a sharp drop in coupe sales so that was market driven.

I agree that a 1988-1997 T-bird/Cougar is much preferable to the lame W-body GP even if the 3.8 was garbage with it’s appetite for head gaskets and weak bottom ends!

The Grand Prix was no doubt the weakest of the downsized A-body coupes, and I think both the re-styled ones from around 1981 onwards and the concurrent Grand Am look so much better, but the unique colors and still-intact factory options make this one pretty cool. Not the vinyl roof, though – that’s the only thing that sucks about it… although in this case, I can tolerate it. Certainly goes along with the rest of the car.

I saw a ’79 Regal wearing the same(?) colors last year under similar circumstances. I was on my way home from work and decided to hop off the train a stop early to get an Italian ice, couldn’t help but noticing the great looking Buick parked across the street. I started taking pictures and the owner came out (he was doing his laundry), told me he found the car online in Ohio where it had been owned by an older woman since new and always garaged. He drove it back without any problems and didn’t have to do anything besides clean it up, which is remarkable for a car that spent it’s entire life in the rust belt. It’s got a green dash and carpet with white vinyl buckets and door skins, and the Pontiac 301/2bbl under the hood – which must have been fairly uncommon in the Regal and got you “4.9 LITRE” badges on the fenders, something I’d never seen before. The engine was completely spotless, looked like it had just rolled out of the factory.

My phone was also acting up and somehow out of about 10 pictures I took, only three survived – which are all dark and look shitty… but use your imagination! The wheels and dual exhausts are the only new additions since the car moved to New York. The owner said it originally had fake wires and he really wanted some kind of factory alloy that was available that year, but couldn’t find any for a reasonable price.

That’s the owner eyeballing me from the laundromat. He was suspicious of anyone taking pictures of his ride, but ended up being real cool once he realized I just liked the car. Wish the shots of the interior had come out…

A well preserved example of a car that unfortunately became a shadow of it’s former self. There seems to be a lot of pampered Grand Prixs of this year and color combo. Here’s one in Texas with 11K miles on it. Saw another in Moline with same color and similar miles

I`ve been a life long Pontiac guy but I never really cared for this generation Grand Prix, however a good friend & fellow Pontiac enthusiast bought a 78 red metallic SJ new & kept it in amazing unrestored condition for almost 30 years. He liked to talk about it and I would tell him how nice I though his car was as any friend would do. In 2009 my friend passed away suddenly. He widow called me & told me ‘Jim wanted you to have his car’. I became the owner of a nearly mint 78 Grand Prix by default. I have since made it my summer driver and kept it stock as a tribute to my friend. Even though I now own one I still think it`s a long way from the prettiest Grand Prix ever built but mine is well equipped with a Bucket seats, V-8 & handling package and I have come to enjoy it as a very nice driver.Besides I always did like white landau tops

Neat car, especially the snowflakes and red vinyl bucket seat interior. What grabs me is how the whitewalls & paint stripe accentuate the white top. The ’78s are my favorite post ’77 GPs because they have the sporty slit taillights and the one-year-only silver face gauges.

Sorry to hear about your friend. Kudos to you for keeping your GP as he probably would have. 🙂

My first car was a ’79 Grand Prix – claret with creme vinyl landau top. It had been my mother’s, and oddly enough, I added the same third brake light to it that this example has. Though its styling was not as expressive as the previous version, I always thought it was one of the better designs on this platform, and certainly stronger than the Regal of the same vintage, which looked thick and heavy.

In the late 1980s, a guy from my high school drove a Bonneville (G-body) in this exact color combination, inside and out. By then this sort of green was considered unstylish, so the car became known as the “pukemobile”.

I never liked riding in the thing as the seats were very uncomfortable, but to each his own.

So because a few people think the styling was feminine or bland that automatically calls out as a deadly sin? Come on! So with that thinking most every bland clone look alike cookie cutter sedan today must also be a deadly sin starting with the Camry. I have owned no less than 4 of these. For such a bland design they sure attracted a lot of attention at the shows, especially the 1980 white SJ with snow flake alloys and the 1980 maroon LJ coupe with factory rally IV wheels. My maroon LJ took a best in class award at a yearly all Pontiac car show, my white SJ won several times at our local cruise for most original and best shape and the car drew so many comments wherever I went I lost track.
Everybody piles on the 301 as if it were the worst engine ever built. In reality I never blew one up. My white SJ had 156K original miles by the time I was done and all that I ever did was valve cover gaskets and a timing chain! The maroon 1980 was a low mileage 24K elderly owned car which I put about 60k on top of that and it still purred like a kitten. The other two were 1979 LJ models with the 2BBL motor that was a little slower but just as reliable and long lasting with remarkable fuel economy. In fact each of these 301’s got about the same fuel mileage as my 1980’s Cutlass Supreme’s with the terrible 231 V6 and were considerably quicker, smoother and more durable! The biggest weak link was the 200 metric trans. Both 1979 cars had them and also the maroon LJ. The 1980 SJ had a THM 350 which was bullet proof. Still only one of the 1979 cars gave a problem but the rebuild for those at the time was peanut money.

The best way to but these cars was with the suspension upgrade and rear spoiler, gauge package, alloy or rally wheels, steel hard top roof, two tone paint and bucket seats. Those were far sharper looking than the dowdy T-bird/Cougar or Cordoba’s of the same time period and far superior to the dreadful deadly sin that Ford put on the market in 1980-82 as the crazy over stuffed vinyl laden T-Birds and Cougar XR7. I would pick a 78-80 Grand Prix any day of the week over those cars!

I think the ultimate a body of this generation is a fully loaded v8 Monte Carlo. The Monte Carlo with its flowing fenders and single headlights was the best looking and most graceful. The grand prix was just plain cheap and bland looking. The Chevy had the better engine too. Interestingly with the 81 redesign the grand prix became the best looking and the Monte Carlo became the bland mobile. Still if I was in the market for a personal luxury car from this year I would rather have a t bird cougar Cordoba.